Members of the successful Asian outfit at the 2016 ITTF World Cadet Challenge in the Chinese city of Shanghai earlier in the week; the combination of China’s Huang Yingqi and Korea’s Ryu Hanna enjoyed further success on the concluding play, Saturday 29th October.

They combined to win the Girls’ Doubles event and succeeded somewhat contrary to expectations; they started proceedings at the no.8 seeds.

A semi-final success in opposition to the European pairing of the Czech Republic’s Zdena Blaskova and Russia’s Anastasia Kolish, the no.3 seeds (9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6); they continued to upset the pecking order. In the final, they overcame the partnership formed Japan’s Miyuu Kihara and Hong Kong’s Lee Ka Yee, the top seeds, to claim the title (4-11, 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 11-9).

In the counterpart semi-final, similar to Huang Yingqi and Ryu Hanna, Miyuu Kihara and Lee Ka Yee ended European hopes; they beat the partnership formed by the Romania’s Tania Plaian and Poland’s Anna Wegryzyn, the no.4 seed (4-11, 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 11-9).

“It was a great match. Although my partner is my teammate, we come from different countries. In the court, maybe we seldom communicate in language but we understand each other’s hand gestures. We have established trust. In the final, I hope we can play our best table tennis, being the champion is our target.” Huang Yingqi after the semi-final Girls’ Doubles success against Zdena Blaskova and Anastasia Kolish.

Success for Huang Yingqi and Ryu Hanna meant that Asia maintained its perfect record in the Girls’ Doubles event at an ITTF World Cadet Challenge; ever since the first tournament was staged in 2002 in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary, an Asian pair has always won the title.

However, it is the first time that China and Korea has combined to secure the coveted title; notably it is third successive year in which a Korean has been successful.

“Now I’m calm. In the double final, we played well. When we fell behind, we didn’t think too much about this match. We believe that we had the opportunity to win the match and we did”, Huang Yingqi after the Girls’ Doubles final

In Barbados in 2014, Kim Jiho partnered to Japan’s Mima Ito to gold; one year ago in Sharm El-Sheikh, Cho Haeeun joined forces with Maki Shiomi, like Mima Ito from Japan, to reserve the top step of the podium.